Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 21, 2026

Middle Spot ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle your information when you use the Middle Spot app.

Our Privacy-First Approach

Middle Spot is built with privacy at its core. We believe meaningful connections shouldn't require surrendering your personal data. We collect only what is necessary to deliver the app's features, and we give you clear controls over your information.

Information We Collect

Information You Provide

• Name: Retrieved from your Apple ID or Google account during sign-in; you can edit it before saving.
• Prompt Answers: Your responses to conversation prompts.
• Encounter Notes: Any notes you add to your encounters.

Information We Collect Automatically

• Location (optional): If you grant permission, we collect city/neighborhood-level location (e.g., "Montreal, Canada") when you log an encounter — scanning a QR code one-on-one, or hosting/joining a group Table session. We do NOT store precise GPS coordinates.
• Voice Recordings (temporary): When you use voice-to-text, your audio is sent to our transcription service and immediately discarded. Only the resulting text is stored.
• Weather Context (optional, tied to location permission): When an encounter is logged, we record atmospheric data — weather condition (e.g., clear, rainy), a temperature-feeling category (e.g., warm, cold) together with the underlying temperature in Celsius, and time of day (e.g., morning, evening).
• Device Token: If you enable push notifications, we collect your device's push token to deliver encounter notifications.
• Crash and Error Reports: We collect anonymized crash and error data via Sentry to help us fix bugs. Sentry is configured with Apple's default PII collection disabled (no IP address or device identifiers attached), and our code never logs your name, prompt answers, or other profile content to it — only generic event descriptions and crash stack traces are sent. As a backstop, we also scrub auth tokens, email addresses, and QR-code link fragments from any message text before it's transmitted.
• Card Counts: For each question card in the decks, we count how many times it is skipped, saved and sent, so we can tell which questions are working. These are totals per card only. They carry no account, device or other identifier, and cannot be traced back to you.

How We Store Your Information

On Your Device

Your data is cached locally for fast, offline access: prompt answers, encounter records and affinities, and app preferences (conversation tone, voice selection, QR sharing scope, etc.).

In the Cloud (Supabase)

To enable features like affinity generation, encounter history, notifications, and account recovery, certain data is also stored in our secure cloud database (Supabase):

• Your profile (name, preferences)
• Your prompt answers. A copy of your answers is kept in step with your device so that affinities can be generated without the other person's device ever receiving your answers. Which answers are included follows your QR Privacy selection — anything you uncheck there is excluded from this copy and from any comparison. Editing or deleting an answer updates this copy; deleting your account deletes it.
• Answers you share with a Table session. When you start or join a Table, the answers you chose to share are stored with that session so the group's prompts can be generated. These are deleted automatically 24 hours after the session expires.
• Encounter records and generated affinities
• Short-lived scan codes — random values containing no personal information, used to confirm that a QR code was scanned in person. They expire within minutes and are deleted automatically.
• Authentication credentials (managed by Supabase Auth — tokens stored in your device's Keychain)
• Device push notification token (to deliver encounter alerts)
• Security event logs (event type, timestamp, and your user ID — used to detect fraud and abuse such as purchase or rate-limit anomalies; never your name, prompt answers, or message content)

All cloud data is transmitted over HTTPS/TLS and protected by Supabase's security infrastructure.

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Create and manage your account
• Generate your personal QR code for sharing with people you meet
• Identify affinities between you and others when QR codes are scanned
• Generate conversation prompts based on shared interests
• Provide psychological insights about your affinities
• Tag encounters with location, weather context, and date (if you've granted permission)
• Deliver push notifications when someone scans your QR code
• Monitor app stability and fix crashes (anonymized)
• Process in-app purchases and manage premium features

AI Processing

Affinity Generation

When you scan someone's QR code, both people's shared answers are read on our server and sent to OpenAI via a secure Supabase edge function. They are not sent from either phone, and neither phone receives the other's answers. This data is used to identify affinities and generate conversation prompts and psychological insights. The generated affinity is then stored in your encounter record (both on device and in Supabase). OpenAI's API key is never embedded in the app — it lives exclusively in our server-side environment.

Voice Transcription

When you record a voice answer, the audio file is sent to OpenAI's Whisper API via a Supabase edge function. The transcribed text is returned, the audio file is immediately deleted from our servers and your device, and only the text is stored. OpenAI processes this data according to their privacy policy.

Information Sharing

We do not:

• Sell your personal information
• Share your data with third parties for marketing purposes
• Track your behavior across other apps or websites
• Create advertising profiles

Your QR Code

Your QR code does not contain your answers. It carries only your user ID (a randomly generated identifier), your first name, and a single-use key. It is encrypted with AES-256-GCM.

The code is created fresh each time you show it and stops working after about thirty seconds. The single-use key is what makes it a code rather than an identity: it can only be obtained by actually scanning the code in person, and it is spent the first time it is used. A screenshot of your code, or a code someone kept from a previous meeting, will not work.

When someone scans you, their app asks our server to compare the two profiles. The comparison happens entirely on our server, and only the resulting affinity is sent back to them. Their device never receives your answers — not the ones you share, and not the ones you don't. Which of your answers the comparison may use is set by your sharing selection in the app, and applied on our server.

Location Privacy

If you enable location tagging:

• We only access your location "While Using the App"
• We store city/neighborhood-level location only (e.g., "Montreal, Canada")
• We do NOT store precise GPS coordinates
• Location is only captured when you log an encounter — scanning a QR code one-on-one, or hosting/joining a group Table session
• You can disable location access anytime in device Settings

Your Rights and Choices

You can:

• Edit or Delete Answers: Modify or remove any prompt answers at any time from the Profile tab.
• Disable Location: Turn off location tagging in device Settings.
• Manage Notifications: Disable push notifications in device Settings.
• Delete Encounters: Remove saved affinities from within the app.
• Revoke Permissions: Disable camera, microphone, speech recognition, or location access via device Settings.
• Delete Your Account: Permanently delete your account and all associated data (see below).

Data Deletion

You can permanently delete your account from within the app:

1. Open Middle Spot → Settings
2. Scroll to the bottom and tap Delete account
3. Confirm — your account and all associated data are immediately and permanently removed from our servers

If you no longer have access to the app, email us at gate@middlespot.app with the subject "Account Deletion Request" and we will complete deletion within 7 days.

Note: Deleting the app from your device removes your local cached data but does NOT delete your account or server-side data. Use the in-app deletion flow above for complete removal.

Authentication

Middle Spot supports three sign-in methods:

• Sign in with Apple: Apple provides your name and optionally a private relay email. Apple's privacy policy governs this data sharing.
• Google Sign-In: Google provides your name and email. Google's privacy policy governs this data sharing.
• Email: We send a one-time verification code to your inbox; entering it signs you in via Supabase Auth. No password is created or stored.

Apple and Google sign-in use industry-standard OAuth 2.0 with nonce-based CSRF protection. Authentication tokens for all methods are stored in your device's Keychain.

Third-Party Services

Children's Privacy

Middle Spot is not intended for users under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes through the app or via email.

Contact Us

Meaningful connections, privacy protected.